Improvement in heaters for railway-cars



H. A. HOUSE & F. B. B RADBURY. Heater for Railway-Cars. No. 22133.Patented Nov. 18, 1879.

NPEIERS. FHOTO-LITHDGRAPNER, WASHINGTON. D C

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIGE.

HENRY A. HOUSE AND FRANK B. BBADBURY, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONN.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEATERS FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 221,733, dated November18, 1879; application filed September 20, 1879.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, HENRY A. HoUsE and FRANK B. BRADBURY, ofBridgeport, Fairfield county, State of Connecticut, have invented anImprovement in Heaters for Railway-Oars, of which the following is aspecification.

The object of our invention is to heat rail way-cars rapidly,effectively, and: at little expense of material and apparatus; and thiswe effect'by combining with the car a blastheater, as fully describedhereinafter.

1n the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is asectional elevation of a car with our improvement; Fig. 2, an end view,and Fig. 3 a detached sectional view of the furnace.

Hitherto it has been proposed to heat railway-cars, sleighs, vehicles,850., by means of stoves or lamps supplied with liquid fuel; but in allsuch cases the heat has been derived. from the action of the flame uponan extended metal surface, the result being inadequate, without the useof a' large number of burners, to the heating of a chamber of anyconsiderable size.

We use a liquid fuel, but substitute a blastfurnace ot' refractorymaterial. for the ordinary lamp and sheet-metal casing, obtaining ablast by means of a draft-pipe, and generating a highly heated gas,which is consumed in a coil in connection with air admitted in closeproximity to the gas-flame.

Various forms of furnace may be employed. One that we have found mosteffectiveisillustrated in Fig. 3, in which E is the body, suspendedoutside t-he car, and covered by a dome, F, of cast metal or otherrefractory material, which dome has a central opening, a, with whichcommunicates the lower end of a pipe folded into a coil, 0-, within thecar, and terminating in a draft-pipe, D.

A tubular stem, G, within the body E, sup ports a metallic wick, b,which may be adjustable by any suitable means, and flanges d d arearranged to form areceptacle, y, below and chamber w-above, the latterbeing tilled with fibrous material and having lateral perforations e, towhich is adapted a registeringring, H.

would supply aflame of a few inches in length, which would be whollyinadequate to the heating of a railway-car.

The above-described apparatus, however, is essentially different in itsoperation from a lamp. The gas is first generated by depositing aquantity of alcohol or other easily-ig nited fluid on the fibrousmaterial an and lighting the same. In a little while the oil carried bythe wick will be vaporized and ignited, and the heat thus generated willfurther increase the supply of vapor, which will flow in a highly-heatedstate through the coil and heat the latter.

But the more contact of the heated vapor would of itself becomparatively inefficient. We therefore, by the adjustment of theregister H, admit air in such quantities as will insure the thoroughcombustion of the gases within the coil, and not at the wick only of thehighly-heated vapors, which are soon generated in such quantities thatthe combustion takes place along a considerable extent of the pipe asthe air -is drawn in with the heated gas.

In practice we have found that a small fun nace of five inches indiameter will maintain a coil of thirty feet at nearly a red-heat-aresult impossible with a lamp.

The importance of having the dome F of cast metal or refractory materialwill be apparent, as the intense heat generated by the blast of air uponthe heated and ignited gases would melt the ordinary tinned'ironcasings.

We do not here claim the construction of the furnace, as it may form thesubject of an other application for Letters Patent; but

We claim- The combination, with a car, of an oil-res ervoir, A, afurnace supplied from said reservoir, and provided with a dome, F, wickb, and air-openings 6, adjacent to the upper end of the wick, coil 0,arranged within the car and communicating with the dome, and draftpipeD, all substantially as set forth.

' In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY A. HOUSE. FRANK B. BRADBURY.

Witnesses:

CYRUS A. MOREHOUSE, DAVID B. LooKWooD.

